Remember Dwight Eisenhower

A half century ago President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial complex. As the allied supreme commander from World War II who supervised sometimes fractious generals from different nations and later NATO commander who faced a far more hostile Soviet Union, Eisenhowever obviously was no wimp. Whatever one thinks of his administration's policies, he understood his duties as president--promoting peace, believing in civilian rule, and emphasizing congressional authority over the decision to go to war.

Three days before leaving office, he spoke to the American people. He feared the potential influence of the war lobby:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual--is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Unfortunately, we seem to have lost that "alert and knowledgeable citizenry" holding the military-industrial complex in check. But we still have time. Indeed, accountability in government is one of the basic missions of Campaign for Liberty.

Full article HERE.

A Nation Of Truth-Rejecters

Truth is not always in the Majority and this is straight talk form Chuck.


By Chuck Baldwin January 6, 2011

A bedrock principle of Natural Law (the Law upon which WesternCivilization rests) is the primacy of truth. Without a desire for, and appreciation of, truth, society cannot sustain itself. Lies, deceit,duplicity, etc., are more than moral evils; they are the bane offreedom and liberty. Take away truth, and one is left without honor,justice, or decency. Truth is the cement that holds the bricks andstones of a sane and civilized society together. Remove the former andthe latter will crumble.

Years ago, a great, old preacher-warrior told my former churchcongregation, “People today love being lied to.” How right he was!For the most part, even professing Christian people today love beinglied to. It would seem that many people find deceit easier to digestthan truth. Maybe it’s because these people lack the aforementionedvirtues of honesty and courage.

Truth demands the virtue of honesty, because honesty requires thatinformation be objectively analyzed and studied; it requires that personal prejudices and proclivities be set aside; it requires that humility replace pride, which allows one’s opinions and conduct tochange in the face of truth.

Truth also demands courage, as courage is the active response tohonesty. To know what is right to do is great (many people do not evenknow this much), but to act upon what one knows to be right is evengreater--and also harder! Courage gives men the fortitude andconviction to suffer personal loss in order to be faithful to their own honesty. Courage places more value on honesty and truth than onpersonal prosperity or aggrandizement. Courage propelled Daniel intothe lion’s den; it drove Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into theburning fiery furnace; it placed a youthful David onto the battlefieldalone against a fierce and ferocious adversary; it gathered PastorJonas Clark’s congregants (mostly farmers and merchants) ontoLexington Green to face Britain’s highly trained, professionalsoldiers.

So, where are the virtues of honesty and courage in the desire fortruth today? Threaten the average pastor and church leader with someobscure IRS tax code and they will quickly turn their backs uponvirtually every principle of truth and honor that they once professedto believe. The mere threat of potential financial loss sends men(excuse me, males) scurrying for cover.

In this regard, when then-Senator Lyndon Johnson created the heinous501(c)3 IRS tax-exempt status for churches, he very cleverly (withassistance from Hades, I might add) planted the seeds that would growup to intimidate the vast majority of America’s pastors and churchleaders into becoming silent slaves of the state. In fact, if one hasan opportunity to ever bore deeply into the matter, he or she willdiscover that most pastors and church leaders today do not even regardthe Church as the institution of the living God, bound only to thelaws and principles of God’s Holy Word; they perceive it as acreature of the state, bound to the subjective machinations of IRSbureaucrats and their toadies in the law profession. And should achoice ever have to be made between the two, God, His Word, and HisChurch will be thrown under the bus in preference to the state-ownedcorporation. So much for truth--or honesty, or courage, for thatmatter.

The rejection of truth seems ubiquitous in America today. When did itstart? Maybe when Abraham Lincoln turned the Constitution on its headand--at bayonet point--turned republicanism into nationalism; maybewhen Woodrow Wilson rejected thousands of years of human history andturned America’s sound money system over to the corrupt andillegitimate Federal Reserve; maybe when Wilson created the monstrousInternal Revenue Service; maybe when the 17th Amendment was adopted;maybe when the American media convinced people that Lee Harvey Oswaldacted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; maybewhen the American people (including the vast majority of pastors andChristians) turned their backs (and their hearts) to the BranchDavidians, who were murdered by federal agents outside Waco, Texas;maybe when so-called “conservative” Senate Republicansdeliberately chose to cover up President Bill Clinton’s criminalconduct; maybe when the powers that be began demonizing anyone whodared to question the “official” story regarding the events on9/11/01; maybe when a vast majority of Christians and conservativesblindly followed and actively supported the unconstitutional,un-American policies of President George W. Bush. They supported Bushwhen he threw off Western Civilization’s time-tested Just Wardoctrine (and replaced it with an unconscionable Preemptive Warpolicy), and, again, when he officially began turning America into apolice state by creating the Department of Homeland Security,implementing the Military Commissions Act, introducing the PatriotAct, and dismantling Habeus Corpus and Posse Comitatus. Whenever itstarted, the sad reality is, America has largely become a nation oftruth-rejecters.

There is a passage of Scripture that I simply must interject here:“Because they received not the love of the truth . . . God shallsend them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” (IIThess. 2:10,11 KJV)

This is one of God’s universal principles: when people deliberatelyreject truth, God will allow them to believe lies, which always leadsto ultimate destruction. I submit that is exactly where America istoday. As a nation, we have rejected truth, and God is giving us overto deceit and falsehood. And what is interesting to me is the way inwhich many unbelievers seem to have a thirst for truth that farsurpasses that of many professing Christians. This leads to an amazingparadox.

Think of it: when God is moving within a nation with His plan oftruth and justice (which He is always doing), then it stands to reasonthat the evil one is, likewise, resisting and countering God’s planthrough deceit and falsehood. This means that those unbelievers whoseek truth are allying themselves with God (maybe even unwittingly),while those professing Christians who have rejected truth are allyingthemselves against God (again, maybe even unwittingly). Remember, Godcalled the heathen king, Cyrus, “my shepherd.” (Isa. 44:28) Butone thing is constant: truth is like a magnet: one is always beingpulled toward it or away from it, depending upon the polarity ofone’s heart and mind. People who embrace truth tend to embrace itfurther, while people who reject truth tend to be continually hardenedagainst it.

Think of the conflicts of world and American history where brothersfought against brothers. Many of these brethren died at the hands ofbrethren fighting for truth, while other brethren died fightingagainst truth. And though men may be unable to discern the difference,God suffers from no such malady. He knows those who enable truth andthose who disable it. And many of those today that are resisting anddisabling truth call themselves Christians. There is anotherappropriate Scripture: “By their fruits ye shall know them.”(Matt. 7:20 KJV)

Again, the desire for truth is a bedrock principle of a free andindependent society. We must desire truth, first, in our own hearts.We must be willing to objectively analyze our motives and actionsbased upon this fundamental principle. How can so many people(including professing Christians) behave so dishonestly? How can theyact so cowardly? How is it that truth is only precious when itdoesn’t cost us anything? How can people be so unconcerned abouttruth and so spiteful toward those who seek it? How can those whoclaim as their Savior the One is “the way, the truth, and thelife” be so calloused against truth? How can those who claim to readthe word of truth (the Bible) be so ignorant of truth?

Look around you: our society is breaking apart due to a lack ofappreciation for truth. Small businesses are being put out of businessdue to a lack of truth. Families are being torn apart due to a lack oftruth. Churches are filled with bitterness, carnality, envy, deceit,duplicity, false accusation, greed, and cowardice due to a lack oftruth. Our political institutions mock the principles of decency andhonor due to a lack of truth. The national media loves to distorttruth; the federal judiciary loves to twist truth; and there is nosuch thing as truth to Big Business--only bottom line profits.

As we enter a new year in search of Heaven’s blessing andprotection, let us remind ourselves that God always judges people whoreject truth. Always! If we truly want Heaven’s blessing andprotection upon our land, we will start--each of us--by being willingto seek and embrace truth, even if doing so costs us something;because, in reality, people who reject truth lose a whole lot morethan whatever they had hoped to gain. Eventually, they lose, not onlytheir own lives, but also the life of their country.